New Climate Sience Centre should aim high with refresher courses

Australia's Chief Scientist,
Alan Finkel.

When Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull shimmied into office last year, science was one of the key things he took for his own.

Not for him the years of trying to defend whether or not he really, truly believed in climate change and the reasons why it was happening. This was a man who, after all, had already lost the leadership of the Liberal Party once because of his unwavering belief in the issue.

The Coalition's policy of dealing with climate change might not have changed dramatically since Mr Turnbull became prime minister, but at least people knew he genuinely believed it was happening.

And so it was in the best traditions of karma when the man appointed by former prime minister Tony Abbott to head the country's premier scientific research organisation, Larry Marshall, managed to hand Mr Turnbull a headache that has only grown in severity over the past few months.

Read Stephanie Peatling’s story in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald and today’s Melbourne Age - “New climate science body should start with refresher courses for Coalition MPs.”